


be careful

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Near Miss AU [14]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24896464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Despite Race's terrible advice, Les does actually get a date with his crush from school.
Relationships: David Jacobs & Les Jacobs, Les Jacobs/OC
Series: Near Miss AU [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735408
Comments: 31
Kudos: 56





	be careful

**Author's Note:**

> This is really sweet and sappy and a little sad at the end because Reasons.

“Do you want to come in?” Les asks, blushing furiously and gesturing back toward the building. “For, uh, hot chocolate or something? I don’t know - I can’t guarantee any privacy, I don’t have a bedroom. I’m just not ready to say goodbye to you yet.”

Maebh smiles, ducking her head a little. The odd lighting from the streetlights exaggerates the shadow of her dimples, and highlights the flush creeping across her cheeks. “Yeah, okay. I can’t say I’m ready to say goodbye to you either, Les. I’ve had a lot of fun tonight.”

“Me too,” says Les, grinning. “Shall we?”

Maebh threads her fingers through Les’s. “Lead the way."

Les unlocks the apartment door, speaking as he opens it. “Hey, Davey, I have –“ and then his eyes fall on the couch. Where David, Jack, Sean, and Tony are all staring at him expectantly. “Nope.”

He backs out the door, turning to face Maebh. “Yeah, so, I just remembered that my brothers are the worst people that I know, and all four of them are sitting in there waiting for us so if you _don’t_ want to come in I’ll understand.”

“Do you not want me to meet them?” Maebh asks, tipping her head to the side. “It’s alright if you don’t. It’s only our first date, and I know they’re important to you.”

“No, it’s not that,” says Les. He’s blushing, he knows he’s blushing. “I just – I really like you, Maebh, and I don’t want them to completely embarrass me and ruin everything.”

Maebh laughs, not unkindly. She has a cute laugh, and those dimples are back in full force. “Les. Chill, okay? I was there the day you butchered the _alphabet_ in a presentation and I still agreed to go out with you; nothing your brothers can say could be more embarrassing than that.”

“Alright, yeah,” says Les. His cheeks are _flaming_. “Thanks for reminding me.”

“Any time,” Maebh says, winking. She pats his cheek. “You’re cute when you blush.”

“I- oh,” says Les. “Thanks?”

She giggles, and it’s a little softer than before. “So. Hot chocolate?”

“Hot chocolate,” Les agrees. “Wait, one more thing – before we go in, would it be alright if I kissed you goodnight? There’ll be no doing it later, _believe_ me.”

“Yeah,” says Maebh, smiling warmly at him. “Yeah, okay.”

And it should be awkward, because Maebh is _maybe_ five foot three and Les is just scraping six, but they make it work and Les’s brain goes a little fuzzy.

Maebh rocks back onto her heels, still smiling up at Les. “That was nice.”

“Yeah,” Les agrees. “I’d love to do it again sometime.”

( _Oh my god, I’m turning into David.)_

“Let’s go inside,” says Les. “Before I change my mind and run away and never come back to this house.”

“Let’s go,” Maebh echoes, laughing.

Les pushes the door open again, and this time actually walks all the way in to the living room. “Hello, worst people I know. Please don’t be weird, I brought a girl here.”

“Hi,” Maebh says with a little wave.

“Mae,” Les says, turning toward her and waving vaguely toward his brothers, “left to right on the couch are David, his fiancé Jack, Sean, and his husband Tony. Don’t ask me why they’re all smushed onto the couch like that, I don’t know.” He looks back at his brothers. “Guys, this is Maebh from class, she came up for hot chocolate.”

Jack opens his mouth to say something, but gets elbowed hard by both David and Sean.

“Nice to meet you, Maebh,” David says. “We weren’t expecting you to come in, but I’m glad to know you had a good enough time that you didn’t run screaming for the hills.”

“You started so nice there for a minute,” Les grumbles.

“I had a good time,” replies Maebh, squeezing Les’s hand. “We just didn’t want to say goodbye quite yet.”

“That is so fucking cute,” Tony says in a stage whisper to his husband.

Maebh laughs.

Les tugs her by the hand around the kitchen counter, starting to go through the motions of making hot chocolate more by muscle memory than anything else and trying to ignore the unsubtle way his brothers are just _watching_ him.

Maebh makes it easy, though. They fall back into the conversation they’d been having in the car, about a project they have coming up, and Les’s nerves fade back to almost nothing because there’s nothing scary about talking to Maebh. He likes her, yeah, he likes her a _lot_ , but they’ve been friends for the better part of four years and she’s easy to talk to.

“Hey, do you want the dinosaur mug or the squid mug?” Les offers, looking into the cupboard.

“Which one do you recommend?” Maebh asks. She’s leaning on the opposite counter, watching him dig around for mugs.

“Well, the dino mug is my favorite,” Les says. He turns around, both mugs in his hands. “But you’re my guest, so I’m happy to let you use it.”

“Dino mug it is,” replies Maebh. She smiles at him, all teeth and dimples and silent laughter, and Les’s heart does a stupid little flip in his chest.

“Excellent choice,” says Les, grinning goofily back.

Before he knows it, it’s been the better part of an hour with the two of them just leaning against the peninsula with their backs to David and the others (who are still just camped out in the living room gossiping like schoolgirls), and Maebh is finishing her hot chocolate and checking the time.

“I should go,” she says. “It’s late.”

“Yeah,” Les says, a little sadly. “I’m – I had fun, tonight.”

“So did I,” says Maebh, her cheeks flushing a little pink. “Despite the, uh, audience.”

They both glance back at Les’s brothers. Jack gives them a thumbs up.

“I’m sorry about them. I did warn you we wouldn’t have any privacy, although I didn’t expect,” Les says, sighing deeply, “ _that_.”

Maebh giggles. “It’s okay. Walk me to the door?”

Les nods. They walk together around the counter and to the front door. They’re still in full view of everyone, because that’s just how this apartment is. Les is painfully aware of Jack and David in particular, since their positions have been reversed more times than he can count and they’re probably very much enjoying this.

_They’re all staring at us_ , Maebh mouths.

Les rolls his eyes. “Thanks for coming out with me tonight, Maebh.”

“How about next time we go back to my place instead?” Maebh says. She bites her lip, looking a little nervous. “I mean – if you _want_ a next time?”

“Yeah, I – I do. Very much,” says Les.

“I’ll look forward to it, then,” says Maebh. She pops up on tiptoe and pecks him on the cheek. “See you in class, Les.”

“See you,” Les echoes.

She leaves, and Les can feel all four of his friends’ eyes on him.

He takes a breath, letting himself enjoy just how well tonight went and the fuzzy warmth he’s wrapped up in before he has to turn around and deal with the relentless teasing he’s bound to get from the boys.

“That might’ve been the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my goddamn life,” Sean says.

“Did you guys have to _stay_ here?” Les asks, and he knows it’s a little whiny but he thinks he deserves it.

“Hey, you’re the one who’s always saying if you don’t want witnesses to your mushy moments, don’t have them in the living room,” Jack teases.

“ _I_ don’t have a bedroom to hide in!” says Les.

“We were just planning to ask you how your date went,” Tony says. “But I think we got a pretty good impression of it for ourselves.” He winks. “You two really were awful sweet.”

“Yeah,” says Les, rolling his eyes. “Thanks. Can you guys clear out so I can, like, go to bed?”

“Yeah, fine,” Jack says.

It’s as the others are dispersing that Les realizes David hasn’t said anything – David, who is usually the first to tease Les at any opportunity.

He also hasn’t moved. He’s still perched on the far end of the couch, watching Les with a faint crease between his eyebrows. Jack had patted his shoulder as he got up, and David barely seemed to notice.

Once the others are gone – Sean and Tony back to their own apartment, Jack just into the bathroom to brush his teeth – Les sits down next to David.

“Dave?” Les says tentatively. “You with me?”

“Hmm?” David responds. He meets Les’s eye. “Yeah. Sorry. I’ll –“

He makes to get up, but Les catches his forearm. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” says David. They stare at each other for a moment, before David says in a very soft, sad voice, “Be careful, okay?”

_oh._

“Yeah, Davey,” Les says gently. He swallows, trying to clear the tight feeling in his throat that came up as soon as he realized what David meant. “Yeah, I’ll be careful.”

David nods and then gets up, disappearing into his room without another word.

It takes Les a long time to get to sleep that night. He keeps replaying the evening in his head, which is nice – the way Maebh’s eyes had lit up when she laughed at one of his stupid jokes, the feel of her hand in his, the warmth of her lips on his cheek.

But the thing keeping him up is David’s quiet plea. _Be careful, okay?_

One of the things that has always kept Les back from dating has been a fear of ending up like David – crushed, with a broken heart and cut off from his friends.

_Be careful, okay?_

Careful with his own heart, careful with Maebh’s. Careful in other ways that David will probably never articulate but they both _know_ he means, with a half glance down the hall toward his daughter’s bedroom.

It’s not healthy to focus on the chance this will fall apart, Les has seen what that can do to a relationship. Still, that fear is _there_.

(And it breaks his heart to know that David is at least a little bit afraid for him, too.)

The least Les can do is be careful.


End file.
